400,000+ deployments
What Nextcloud replaces and why run it yourself
Nextcloud bundles several tools most teams currently rent separately. Files handles sync and share, Talk covers chat and video calls, Office edits documents in the browser and Groupware ties calendar, contacts and mail together. Around 400,000 deployments run it. The server itself is AGPL licensed.
The pricing model is usually what decides it. Hosted suites charge per user per month, then again per terabyte, so the bill tracks headcount rather than use. A self-hosted install has no seat count at all. You pay for a server, add accounts as people join and the cost only moves when you need more disk. Where that server physically sits is your choice too, which matters for anyone with data residency rules to satisfy.